Marshall James Winchester was born 29th November 1898 at Ashburnham, Sussex, England. His Dad, George, was a farmer and his Mum, Alice Ann (known as Ann) used do what she could to help out on the farm according to the 1911 census.
Marshall was killed on board *Black Prince on the 31st May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland which the lives of 5769 men and 328 officers.
Marshall’s brother, Hubert, was serving in the Royal Sussex Regiment whilst Marshall was in the navy rated 1st Class Boy. In June 1916 George and Alice heard that Hubert had been lost in action in France he died June 30th (he is buried Loos Memorial, Loos-en-Gohelle, Departement du Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, Plot: Panel 69 to 7).
Harriett Hutchinson (1880-1965) was their brother. She ran the Bell Inn with her husband, James Hutchinson (1869-1948). Dad George died in 1947 aged 96.
Details about the Winchester family is here at the Old British News Family Archive.
* “The cruiser Black Prince which, at the first meeting of the two main fleets had followed her flagship, Defence, into action and been roughly handled at the time that Defence had been blown up and Warrior disabled, had been left behind by the Grand Fleet’s turn to the southward after deployment. For some reason which will never be known, she was still at this time far astern of and out of touch with the British fleet; but when a line of battleships was dimly seen ahead, it was no doubt thought that they were the British squadrons. Course was altered to close them. At a bare half-mile range, the German recognition signal flashed out. The horrified Captain Bonham, swung his ship away in a desperate effort to escape, but it was too late. In the battleship Thuringen the same deadly efficient night action procedure that had been displayed at the head of the line went into play. Brilliantly lit by half-a-dozen searchlights, the Black Prince was raked from stern to stem by a tornado of shells and lay a helpless wreck before she could even fire a shot in reply. As she drifted down the German line, ship after ship opened up on her, Thuringen, Ostfriesland, Nassau and, finally, as the fleet flagship Friedrich der Grosse, added her quota, the Black Prince met the same end as the Defence, blowing up with a tremendous explosion, vanishing with all hands” (source: here).
